​"On March 17, 2018 we are organising a bike travel festival in Boitsfort. The one-day programme will include films, workshops/conferences and exhibition stands.

There will be a session about activists who travel by bike with Dynamobile and Climate Express. It will be a +/- 50 minutes session during which each group will present its goals, practical organisation and how biking is used for advocacy. Presentations will be followed by a discussion with the audience.Cycling for Libraries Belgium is invited to join this session!We'll keep you informed!

On Monday evening December 4, 2017 the Ghent Library School organizes the fourth edition of the 'Bib Web Awards'. These are awards for deserving digital practices and tools from the Flemish library, documentation and information sector.Cycling for Libraries Belgium is nominated in the category 'Groot gezien'(= 'Broadly seen': best non-local digital projects). Excellent choice: non-local: that's exactly what we wanted to be!The selection of the nominees was made by a group of students. A combination of audience (50%) and jury votes (50%) will determine the final result in each category. Anyway, it gives us a good opportunity to 'spread the word' and to make some exta publicity for Cycling for Libraries!

A few words about the tour:The itinerary was astonishing: everyday different views, landscapes. The cliffs the best!!!The places we visited: I had a particular interest for la cité Miroir, I loved the place itself and the purpose of it, a reflection about our society.Cathérine

May we continue to advocate for libraries, to defend our libraries and our profession, on bikes and off, and raise awareness both within and without the library world. May our community of cycling librarians grow, with love and passion, and may we continue to improve mutual understanding, one librarian at a time.Mariël

Well… I forgot my backpack (with my book, my camera and other things) in the hostel at Eupen. In the meantime I could retrieve it, so the book is back where it came from: in Ghent.It found a new home in ‘De Frietketel’ ('best Belgian Fries of Flanders!), on a bookshelf in the dining room…Books and fries: a Belgian combination!

I brought a bike map and gave it to Isabelle at Trois-Ponts as a thank you gift

14/15-9-2017‘Informatie aan Zee’ is a biennial Flemish library congres that takes place in Oostende. We had a C4L-stand in the congress hall. We invited participants to take a ride on our two exercise bikes, telling them all they wanted to know about the tour

Wednesday evening I took the train from Genk to Trois-Ponts, where I had left my car. It was a journey back in time. The train stopped in Diepenbeek, Bilzen, Tongeren and Liège, where I took a last picture of 'Liège together'!The trip ended on a deserted parking in a rainy little town you all know by now: Trois-Ponts. Four days earlier full of life and noise and expectation, now silent and dark, and waiting for the next event. Yes, a real circus!When leaving Trois-Ponts, I couldn’t help stopping to take my last picture. A huge bike on a roundabout. It seemed a perfect conclusion of our tour and our motto: united we bike!I look back on the preparation process and on these four days of cycling with a warm feeling of gratitude. I’d like to thank each of you for your contribution to the tour: by being there, by participating, by your positive attitude, by sharing, by helping us in different ways, by going on – even if it was sometimes difficult.I already said it on our last evening: preparing a tour is one thing (that’s what we did), making a tour is something else. And that’s exactly what all of you did. You did a great job and you can be proud of it. Most of all, I would like to thank Mariël. One thing’s for sure: without her, there wouldn’t have been a C4L Belgium. I’m very glad to have said ‘yes’ when she came up with that first question: “What if we would organize a local tour in Belgium?”But why say yes, knowing that it would mean a lot of work? Well, it’s quite simple. When I look back on the last ten years of my professional life, I can clearly distinguish three events that really made a difference and gave me a boost of positive energy.The first was the IFLA congress in Göteborg (little did I know that this was also the place where the first idea for Cycling for Libraries was born!) The second was the C4L Tour from Montpellier to Lyon (and the other similar tours that followed). And the third was an international staff week in Finland. Not so difficult to find the common ground. Three things I did for the first time. All three are connected to libraries but were happening outside the library. There is always an international aspect, and it’s always about sharing knowledge and connecting to other people.It was a pleasure to work on this together. We were a good team, we talked a lot, we mailed a lot, I think we also learned a lot – as for both of us it was the first time we organized an event of this scale. But it was an even greater pleasure to see you enjoying it, especially the first-timers! We could see it in your eyes, we could hear it in your laughs, we could feel it in your hugs, we could read it in your kind words and positive feedback after the tour. They were heartwarming. ​Dirk